


Count the Headlights on the Highway

by theshipsfirstmate



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: 4x04 missing scene, F/M, new frequency same cry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-24
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-05-03 04:57:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5277524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theshipsfirstmate/pseuds/theshipsfirstmate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Her finger hovers over the number for what feels like hours. When she finally presses 'dial,' she’s not sure if it’s a conscious decision or a muscle spasm. Still, she holds the thing up to her ear."</p>
<p>Because Cisco definitely helped fix the Canary Cry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Count the Headlights on the Highway

_Laurel x Cisco. 4x04 mid-ep missing scene. Because who else fixed the Canary Cry?_

_A/N: Sorry it took so long. Plus side, it also inspired an Almost Famous AU, which I’m now crazy about._

_Title from “[Tiny Dancer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoskDZRLOCs)” by Elton John. (seriously, Laurel Lance as Penny Lane and Cisco Ramon as William Miller. imagine it, dream it, love it.)_

**Count the Headlights on the Highway**

Her finger hovers over the number for what feels like hours. When she finally presses “dial,” she’s not sure if it’s a conscious decision or a muscle spasm. Still, she holds the thing up to her ear.

_“Laurel?”_

“Hey Cisco.” She schools her voice, but it’s barely worth the effort, her throat is scraped from screaming and crying, both over Sara and via her recently-malfunctioning Canary Cry.

_“What’s going on?”_ She can hear the concern in his voice and knows immediately that this was a terrible idea.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have bothered you.”

_“No, it’s no bother!”_ He’s always eager to help her, but that’s lower on the list of reasons why she likes him than anyone might think. _“We’re just finishing up at the lab right now, I can have Barry run me over.”_

This is ridiculous, she knows it, and yet she can’t seem to make herself call him off. “And how will you get home?”

_“Well, I think there’s still a train,”_ he teases. _“Plus, who knows, Barry might be up late, making heart eyes over Patty.”_

“Patty?” The kid really is the fastest man alive. “Now, who’s Patty?”

_“You should call more often,”_ Cisco replies, smiling at her through the phone somehow. _“You gotta keep up.”_

“I will.” She’s not sure if she means it or not.

_“I’ll be at your place in five,_ ” he tells her. And he is, a few minutes later she hears them skid to a stop in her hallway. Both impressive and incredibly convenient.

“Thanks, Barry.” They say it at the same time when she opens the door, and Allen’s not quick enough when it comes to schooling his teasing grin, in her opinion.

“Not a problem,” the speedster replies, to both of them. “Tell everyone I said hi.”

Before she can nod, he’s gone. And then it’s just the two of them in the hall, and she tells herself her heart is beating so fast because of the stressful day she’s had.

“Come in.” She takes too long to find her words, but it’d be crazy to blame that on how good he smells, right? It’s definitely crazy to think that he follows her inside a little close on purpose.

“So, what’s going on?” Cisco pulls his laptop out and opens it up on her coffee table, taking a seat on the couch before looking at her expectantly. He doesn’t even know what kind of problem this is, she realizes, grabbing the choker off the countertop.

“Somehow, one of the ghosts…” Off his confused look, she clarifies, “the underground militia of Damien Darhk that we’ve been tracking.”

“You guys could use a little creativity in the naming department,” he interrupts with a grin that she can’t really help but return, before he lets her continue.

She hands him the choker and he pops out the sonic component like he’s done it a million times before. “Anyway, one of the ghosts was able to neutralize the Cry, he sent some kind of wave back that jolted me, and cut it off.”

He screws his lips at the information, already plugging the main part of the device into two different wires that link up to his machine. “This thing’s overdue for an upgrade, anyway.” She watching him tap out a few things, then press the enter key decisively. Then, he’s looking back up at her.

“So, what’s really going on?”

“What do you mean?” It won’t work. But she tries. It’s easier to focus on things that can be fixed, like her supersonic weaponry.

“Laurel,” he frowns. “Come on.”

“I’m not sure…you’d understand,” she admits, pacing the room. “It’s kind of…bizarre.” Off the look his face, she realizes how nuts that sounds, warning someone who battles metahumans on a weekly basis that something is out of the ordinary. Still, this is a special case.

“Remember how I told you that Dr. Wells killed me last year?” he chimes in to her thoughts, and Laurel just nods, a little confused, remembering how he had shown up on her doorstep one night when Team Flash was in town.

_He wanted to ask her for a drink, he had explained. But he knew she didn’t drink. So he drank for the both of them, to get up the nerve. He had already died in an alternate timeline, he confessed, so he didn’t have anything to be afraid of. That was when she pulled him into her apartment and he passed out on her couch._

“Yeah, well he’s back,” he tells her. “Only it’s not really Dr. Wells, it’s his clone from Earth 2, who is simultaneously reminding me of the man who straight-up murdered me while somehow being _more_ of a total scumbag.”

“Jesus,” she breathes, sinking down on the couch next to him, because that is several large-scale things to process in a few short words. “I mean, you _win_. You actually win.”

She trails off, content to just let him grin at her like that for a while, but then he nods his head expectantly.

“So?”

Oh, right.

“My sister,” she starts, clearing her throat. “She’s…back.”

“Sara’s back? The Canary?” He’s amazed but far from shocked. Oh right, _Earth 2._ “Can I meet her?”

His words bring a fresh sheen of tears to her eyes, and she curses herself a little because she swore she’d be all cried out by the time he got here. But the thing is, Cisco and Sara, _her Sara_ , would get on like gangbusters. She knows they would.

“Not really,” she shakes her head mournfully. “She’s not…she’s not really the same.”

“She was gone for a long time,” he looks like he’s weighing something in his mind, before he turns to her with wide, terrified eyes. “Laurel, tell me you didn’t dig her up yourself.”

It’s his fault for being a genius, really. That’s what she tells herself when she bursts into helpless sobs. Almost immediately, he’s shifting the laptop on his lap and giving up his left arm to draw her into his side.

“Captain Cold threatened my brother last year,” he tells her, tucking her tightly into him. She’s thankful his jacket is dark, because her mascara is _not_ waterproof. “I would have done…anything. And I don’t even really _like_ my brother.”

She laughs at that, if only for his effort. Her tears have tapered off slightly, and she lifts her head just slightly, trailing her nose along his neck until they’re almost eye-level. If she just moved a little to the left...

“Don’t.” The words from his mouth are soft, but forceful, and they freeze her in place.

“I just…I’ve had a lot of people kissing me for the wrong reasons lately,” he explains and she can’t help the way her eyebrows shoot to her hairline when his voice drops a serious few steps. “Kissing me because they need something. Kissing me because of what I’ve done for them. I don’t want to do that any more.”

“You’ve had a lot of people kissing you lately?” She wipes some tears away as she sits up a little, thankful for the diversion, but who is she kidding? She has no stake here, no claim over him, it’d be ridiculous to think she ever did. But then he does things like have the Flash run him over to fix her up, smile at her like he does, and she wonders who really has the claim over whom.

“Just more than usual,” he’s biting his lip then, typing furiously at something she’s 97% sure is meaningless. But he smacked her sideways with his impassioned little speech and she doesn’t want to be one of those people, kissing him for what he thinks are the wrong reasons.

“Okay,” she leans back and grabs the TV remote to distract herself. Almost Famous is on, and she clicks to it immediately, hoping she hasn’t missed “Tiny Dancer.” Billy Crudup is telling a house full of suburban youth how he’s a golden god, and it makes her think of Tommy just briefly.

“I love this movie.” Cisco looks at the TV, and then at her, and it’s like something shifts a little. It feels like such a normal thing, amidst the chaos of their lives, the kind of thing she’s almost given up on.

“Me too.”

He only breaks eye contact when something on his lap dings, tapping out a few more keystrokes, and setting the machine on the coffee table. He pops the sonic piece back into the Cry choker and handing it back to her with that smile again.

“New frequency,” he says, holding it out with a wag of his eyebrows that shouldn’t be as adorable as it is, “same cry.”

She kisses him then, because she wants to, and because he’s smart and sweet, and because he’s only here for the night. If she doesn’t kiss him now, she might not get another chance. Those feel like the right reasons to her, and mercifully, he seems to agree.

He’s cupping her face in his palms as his lips trace over hers, sweet but firm, and every so often, his fingers flex like he’s afraid she’s going to pull away. Not a chance. She’s going to kiss him for as long as she can, and when they have to pull away, she’s going to say “thank you” and pretend it’s for fixing her tech instead of saving her soul.


End file.
